Sun Valley Elementary Students Receive Free Health Screening Via KidCheck Plus, With Continued Technology Support From The Verizon Foundation

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sight Savers America (SSA) KidCheck Plus Program, an award-winning children's health screening program in Alabama, conducted free screenings for children at Sun Valley Elementary School in Birmingham. During the screening, The Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic institution of Verizon, presented a $30,000 grant to SSA as part of the Foundation's ongoing support of KidCheck Plus. Verizon's support of KidCheck Plus now totals $150,000 in grant funding.

KidCheck Plus provides head to toe school-based health screenings to children in underserved parts of Alabama. UAB School of Nursing students working under faculty supervision will conduct the screenings. Health screening checkpoints include:

    --  Height and weight
    --  BMI
    --  Blood Pressure and temperature
    --  Vision
    --  Dental and hearing
    --  Heart and lung sounds
    --  Heart and respiratory rates
    --  Skin and musculoskeletal
    --  Eyes, ears, nose and throat exams.

Through a series of grants from the Verizon Foundation, KidCheck Plus has developed a customized wireless software platform to capture all health screening results with pass/fail baselines to immediately highlight indications of potential health concerns and abnormalities. The software generates an individual screening result form that is sent home to parents and also provided to school nurses. SSA provides case management for children failing the vision screening. Expeditious results and point-of-care recommendations are enabled by the software system, developed by KidCheck Plus, as well as mobile technology support from Verizon Wireless.

"Access to healthcare shouldn't be impeded by inefficient work processes like manual paperwork, a lack of Internet access or any other aspect of the digital divide," said Julie Smith, vice-president of external affairs, Verizon south area. "The KidCheck Plus program is a great example of how mobile technology can be deployed to make an impactful and positive difference in families' lives. This is at the heart of the criteria the Verizon Foundation seeks when it selects its partner organizations."